So, on the 25th of July, the collective internet exploded thanks to the leakage of three separate beta versions of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, dating from 3/17/06, 5/30/06, and 6/30/06, the first one being very early in development as many maps and assets were not even in the game yet, whereas the last two were basically complete, just needing the placeholders to be replaced with final sprites. Several of these though were complete versions of Pokemon that we never got, beta versions of things like Grotle, Torterra, Prinplup, Yanmega, Togekiss, and one of the most finished ones, the Gible line. It was completely different, kind of crazy that this little thing turned into what it is today

I'd love to hear about what you guys saw and what you thought were some of the best/worst/craziest beta designs that you saw. Even some of the maps and trainer Pokemon were different, it was quite nice to see.

Call me crazy but I actually much prefer the art for the Shinx line in the beta over what we ended up getting. Same for the Cranidos line. I like the slightly less edgy art Luxray had in the beta. It's cute and I would definitely enjoy it a lot more if it looked like that now. The cranidos line used to be badass, I don't agree whatsoever with the transition to the awkward looking duo we have nowadays. There were also some horrendous looking ones that I'm sure were just sketches. Carnivine, Probopass and Regigigas to name a few.